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First, an experiment was conducted to quantify the position and angular velocity profiles of a pan while flipping an egg. In the beginning, we addressed the hypothesis that an egg could be flipped effectively by a pan moving with purely rotation (no translational component) in the design of our experiment. To do this, we fixed a pan to a hinge so it could only rotate and taped a phone to the back running an accelerometer app. Once we found that we could successfully flip an egg, we started recording data and generated angular velocity versus time graphs for six successful flips. These graphs revealed four characteristic points in the motion of our pan link. First, the pan must start horizontal. Second, there must be a dip motion to induce translation by the egg to the curved wall of the pan. Third, there must be a fast upward rotation to launch the egg. Finally, and possibly most complex, there must be an extended period of time when the pan remains horizontal to catch and control the egg. In this way, we determined the ideal profile for our final egg-flipping linkage. More information on the experiment setup, data collection, and data analysis can be found in the Wiki here.
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